It has been a bit since I have published anything on this blog.  SV Yankee Girl and I are still working hard to get back in the water.  I have made a lot of progress along with steps backwards as well.  There has been moments when I have simply wanted to give up and move on.  But then there are moments when I have been so excited, I can feel the wind on my face and the warmth of the tiller in my hand.

The big successes have been the electrical and the Yanmar.  I have successfully updated all the existing electrical in the boat since May of 2016.  The process was great.  I have gained confidence in my abilities and my understanding of how marine electrical works and what to do to ensure my boat is safe.

The work on the Yanmar has been a bit of a roller coaster.  In August of last year, I had the engine pulled out of the boat.  The engine had been the main culprit to having the boat pulled out of the water in Florida in May of 2016.  I have very limited knowledge of how diesel engines work, much less how to fix them.  Once I reached the extent of my knowledge and the helpful folks around the boatyard, I enlisted the help of professional.  At one point, he was not confident that the engine would ever be able to work properly again and talked about re-powering the boat.  The cost putting a new engine in Yankee Girl was a lot more than my budget would allow.  So, my mechanic tried again to get the little motor to run smoothly.  Last month I received the best email I have ever received.  Mike, my mechanic, was able to get the engine to run smoothly!!

The next daunting project has been my bow sprit.  I discovered a crack in the bow sprit last fall.  So, the bow sprit was added to the list.  In June, with the help of my friend (and main boat guru 😉 Jeff Lovett, the bow sprit was pulled off the boat.  We discovered, much to my dismay, an excessive amount of rot!  I am grateful that we discovered it because the failure of the bow sprit would be catastrophic.  After many creative ideas and looking at interesting alternatives, the bow sprit is being replaced.

I have a goal now to keep updating this blog more often.  I also will strive to provide more photos of my progress.